Belcher and Cawthorn storm to World Cup canoe gold

24 May 2014 / 13:38

Lani Belcher believes there is plenty more to come from her and Rachel Cawthorn after the pair won Great Britain’s first international canoe gold medal of the season in the women’s K2 500m at the World Cup in Szeged, Hungary.

Belcher only paired up with London 2012 Olympian Cawthorn a few months ago but the duo impressed in their opening World Cup regatta at Racice, Czech Republic last week, winning silver in the K2 200m.

And it was more of the same in the longer distance in Hungary on Saturday morning as they led from start to finish to take the gold by over half a second in a time of 1:45.464.

London 2012 bronze medallists Karolina Naja and Beata Mikolajczyk of Poland were second ahead of Germany’s Sabrina Hering and Steffi Kriegerstein, with Belcher impressed with her and Cawthorn’s blossoming partnership.

“It's quite exciting considering we have only just got together,” said Belcher.

“We already know each other really well, we think the same way, we trust each other and we don’t have to remind each other about things during a race.

“Having a heat and a semi final yesterday has helped us and we build from each race by learning something new.

“Today we stuck to our plan and I was really pleased with how we just keep the boat running smoothly right through the race.”

British pair Angela Hannah and Jess Walker also placed fifth as history was made with GB Canoeing having two of its boats in the final for the first time.